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Okay, so the FCC vote to deregulate media ownership is done – now what? Dan Gillmor has some ideas: we have to look at the FCC’s latest policy move in two additional contexts. First, consider the recent spate of mergers and acquisitions by the biggest players, to the point where …

When we talked about the case a couple of months ago, it seemed pretty cut and dried to me: the company used material in the public domain and made something new out of it. That’s what the public domain is FOR. Fortunately, the Supreme Court agreed 8-0: The Supreme Court …

I forgot how much I love the dry, talcum powder balm that is Suzanne Vega’s voice – Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera and the other junior divas could learn a thing or three about the value of underplayed expression from Vega, who conveys more meaning and feeling in an inhalation than …

CSPAN2’s Book TV sees itself as sober nonfiction book talk each weekend from 8am Saturday to 8am Monday – it is rare that participants nearly come to blows. But this little tiff proves the left-right gulf hasn’t closed any since the war ended: Unlike Ernest Hemingway’s encounter with poet Wallace …

Sympathy for this murderous asshole is seriously misplaced. I am pleased law enforcement stuck it out for five years. We were there in Atlanta in ’96 – though not at the park at the time of the bombing – and it changed the entire mood of the Games. It took …

Today the FCC sucks Big Media ass through razor wire: An ideologically fractured Federal Communications Commission plans to vote along party lines today to relax or eliminate some key media ownership rules, allowing a newspaper to own a television station in the same city and broadcast networks to buy more …

For a while I thought he was possessed by the malevolent spirit of Klaus Nomi, but now I know it’s just dad, dollars and adoration my commentary on MSNBC: you can’t help asking yourself, what caused this whole, highly eccentric mess? The public was more than willing to forgive Jackson’s …

’60s and ’70s acts dominating the top-grossing list: Last summer, five of the top 10 grossing tours were artists that came of age in the ’70s, including Billy Joel and Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith, Neil Diamond and the Eagles. Three others were acts that debuted in the ’60s: Paul …

“It was 40 years ago today…” Paul McCartney returned to Liverpool Sunday for a hometown concert to cap a 14-month world tour. Some 30,000 fans were expected to attend the open-air show on the city’s docks, the final date of McCartney’s Back in the World tour. The 60-year-old former Beatle …

George Ziemann with some interesting history: Eastman Kodak agreed to sell filmstock only to authorised producers. The MPPC took over all but one of America’s film distributors. The courts upheld Edison’s claims that most of the film cameras in use infringed his patents. Then Edison got too pushy. The MPPC …